I really enjoyed the Emperor’s Wrath l, the second book in the Emperor’s Assassin trilogy by Kai Butler. The action packed story was highly entertaining, moved the entire plot forward with an enormous amount of magical details, new elements, and growth in the relationship between Tallu and Airón.
The political drama and plotting behind the generals was well done. All the various and newly introduced characters (as we as their backgrounds) added interesting layers of intrigue to the story.
I did find that the increased density of new characters, plots, magical creatures, techno magic elements started that emerged here also left similar unexplored areas or just narrative holes that felt unsatisfying for me.
Certain emotional storylines ( no spoilers) that applied to one section of small characters but later not at all to one large impactful one. Inconsistency in the character design or something else. But here, as well as other things, feels more like too many storylines and an over abundance of new elements made for some interesting oversights.
I’m definitely looking forward to the final book, Shadow Throne King, due out in the fall.
Check out this fantasy series by Butler! Entertaining reading!
In this den of vipers and vultures, can I trust the emperor I was sent to kill or is he using me to destroy all I love?
I abandoned my destiny in favor of a new goal: working with Emperor Tallu to take down the Southern Imperium. Only things are not so easy when we’re faced with the imperial generals who brought the continent to its knees.
If my mother knew what I was doing, her rage would melt the Silver City, but I have no choice as Tallu and I pursue a powerful weapon that could end any opposition to the Imperium.
Why does it matter if I’m finding myself all too attracted to a husband I can’t trust, whose secrets multiply the closer he lets me get?
So adorable and hilarious. It’s the last one in the series but what a wonderful story to see where our favorite characters are in life and heartwarming story to see them out.
Ivy and Winter are an established couple, settled and happy in their own ways, living together and each having their own unique identity in the Order, he as the Ipsissimus, Head of the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment and she as the head Ghost Whisperer, not the title . Plus their familiars. And all the other great characters we’ve met the other books in this series.
It’s a short story about their pending first Christmas together and the chaos at the Order. And it will make you yearn for more novels about this fantastic woman and her unique universe.
A absolutely wonderful story and a winner for the author and readers.
Cover by Yocla Designs. an accurate representation actually . She’s a fantastic character.
You would think December would be Ivy’s ideal time of year. After all, festivities abound and witches everywhere are encouraged to put their feet up and relax. That’s not quite the case when she has various Order members attempting to finagle her into Christmas activities and a special artefact from the top of the Christmas tree goes missing. Either someone is attempting to sabotage Winter or something very strange is afoot indeed.
Magic & Mutiny (Starry Hollow Witches Book 19) is the finale book of this series by Annabel Chase. And while it started out great, I think it ran on a bit too long.
The characters and themes got repetitive and some of their growth was handled poorly. Or halted altogether.
It ends happily, and there’s an epilogue where we see the characters a couple of years later, and what’s happened in their lives. That’s satisfying.
The ending is fine, with some issues. There’s a murder investigation, which is tied to how will the town of Starry Hollow deal with the return of the very much alive Ivy Rose.
Ivy is the best element here, she’s a sympathetic character and how her situation is resolved is wonderful.
But the person and people responsible and their actions aren’t well written. It fluctuates from a stand of firmness of position (she’s evil) to immediate change in opinion (my bad, she’s not) in seconds. There’s no reason or real constructive character or foundation for any of this. And it undermines the entire storyline.
Then it’s let’s say we understand her motivations. Slap on the wrist. Sigh. It took how many books and this is how Ivy’s story is resolved?
Way too long. A wedding and done.
So it’s nice that each book was a quick read but I’m not sure I’d invest my time reading 19 books again with this outcome. It’s a ok read.
For fans of Annabel Chase I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Welcome to Starry Hollow, where spells were made to be broken.
Ever since the moment her trio of magical cousins whisked her away to Starry Hollow, the town has served as a safe haven for Ember Rose, descendant of the One True Witch. Even the bumps in the roads have smoothed—she’s reconciled with her formidable aunt and is about to marry the love of her life, Sheriff Nash.
All the bumps except the Ivy-shaped one, that is.
Now the entire town is under threat because of a mistake Ember made. Granted, she wasn’t the one who mistreated her ancestor centuries ago, but she was the one who resurrected her.
And now Ivy is ready to exact revenge on the coven that wronged her.
Can Ember stop the mutiny and save her beloved hometown, or will the one-witch rebellion destroy Starry Hollow forever?
Magic & Mutiny is the 19th and final book in the Starry Hollow Witches series, so be sure not to miss how it all ends
Magic & Mistletoe (Starry Hollow Witches Book 18) by Annabel Chase is both the penultimate book in the series and one I almost DNF’d.
Personally, I think it’s a story that can be skipped over as it’s one that almost had me thinking about just stopping here.
I’ve enjoyed watching Ember journey from a scrappy widow and single mother from New Jersey, ignorant about her magical roots and powers to one embracing her paranormal town and community, including family and fiancé. But this story is one of constant lies and withholding important information from all those around her, including her fiancé and family.
Lack of communication in adult characters is a big issue for me in books and by the 18th novel we should be way past this stage but it’s still an enormous element here.
Also she’s acting like a teenager in some of the most serious and emotional situations. Smelling her armpits and making a wisecrack when presented with a picture of devastating loss. It’s not believable not the following scene either.
She’s either grown past actions like this, given the development by Chase or she’s regressing because it’s something the author wants to hear scene wise. It makes her character and any growth that she’s undergone seem diminished. Or just unreal.
This whole thing is a mess. Yes let’s have a nice Christmas Carol type story, and then try to tie it up with the ongoing drama of the revived witch.
Doesn’t work. Ended up flipping pages to get to the end.
I’ll finish the series. But this was a big disappointment.
Welcome to Starry Hollow, where spells were made to be broken.
It’s Christmastime in Starry Hollow and Ember is not full of good cheer. Instead of indulging in spiked eggnog by a cozy fire, our favorite descendant of the One True Witch is busy helping Aunt Hyacinth contend with three persistent ghosts just like dear Scrooge, along with another, more threatening ghost from the past.
Can Ember save Christmas or will it all go to hell in a one horse open sleigh?
Magic & Mistletoe is the 18th book in the Starry Hollow Witches series.
If you’re reading a series and notice certain things or elements of a character(s) or storyline that are starting to become a bit predictable or problematic, then you hope that as the series goes forward, the author has a way to use those things in the narrative or character development.
At least so it’s not an issue that is highly distracting from the plot or character relationship.
Unfortunately that’s what is happening with the characters here.
Spoilers for the preceding book.
Primarily it’s the character of Duncan and the dynamic between Luna and Duncan. It is absolutely disconnecting me from the character of Luna who I found relatable and interesting in her personality and life story.
But the dynamic between them, especially with her history with Duncan and her ex-husband, as well as her cousin, it’s just making her out to be either a woman with extremely bad judgment or just a nonsensical storyline. Duncan, a clone of an ancient powerful werewolf, has betrayed Luna in the past. She forgave him. Then he attacked her, under the control of a mage. One he’s still under the influence of when the mage desires. The logic is to cut him off.
The author, instead, has Luna repeatedly inviting him,(past, current and future threat) back into her life, the pack’s life and now it looks like her son’s. Yes, this will go as well as expected.
Just when needed, oh look. He’s running away. Cue up the eye roll.
Buroker was or is building a picture of a divorced woman trying to handle multiple major events/family crises and struggling with them as she would be. But here’s the thing, Luna has been portrayed as tough, extremely realistic and resilient. Even with the current state of affairs in her life, with the pack politics, mother’s health, and now the Druid family arriving at the housing units, the relationship dynamics the author has playing out is very counter intuitive to the woman Buroker also wants us to believe in.
How much of patsy or casualty is Luna expected to be of this relationship and the readers too? It’s getting old fast.
I’m continuing on but with less enthusiasm than when I began.
For those who enjoy paranormal werewolf fiction and urban fantasy thrillers, check it out. See what you think.
Pack politics, adventure, and romance feature in the third installment of Magnetic Magic.
Luna has recovered priceless werewolf relics from powerful thieves, but they’re still alive—and they can control her new ally, a lone wolf named Duncan.
She would be wise to have nothing to do with him, but he’s handsome, charming, and keeps coming to her defense. Further, with certain members of the pack gunning for her, she needs his assistance. Her cousin Augustus is holding a grudge, and she’s going to have to find a way to deal with him—before he deals with her.
Cajole is the penultimate book in The Adventures of a Xeno-Archaeologist by Jenny Schwartz and I’m finding it very entertaining, while making me think a bit more about how some of the more “familiar” Earth elements made the passage through the gate and successfully established themselves in the new Human Section.
Donkeys, horses, many types of earth fauna as well as fauna is essentially as well known as they are as an Earth species. Which given the history, as colony ships so long ago, seems unusual. I wish their background had been explained as fully as some of the other “alien elements “ that Schwartz does so vividly.
The relationship dynamics, the Forgotten, those people in hiding, the entire storyline of how and why they are used and acquired through the galaxy is a fascinating story, and emotional one. It drives many of the characters and their interactions here.
And it’s also the hidden aspects behind the power of the thrones.
Driving the characters , the need to cage and the equal opportunity to flee for freedom.
Another exciting story and move towards the finale. Throughly entertaining.
If life on the border was complicated, life on Capitoline is insane. Nora and Liam struggle to reconcile her abilities and his duty, while caught up in the dangerous games of the powerful.
Political intrigue, family drama, and ancient alien technology combine in the fourth novel of the Human Sector.
Jenny Schwartz is really such a great go to author for me lately. And I’m having a blast reading this science fiction series about a strong woman building a new family and eventually a new life together for a found family clan that also includes a alien AI , an adopted daughter, and now a military or ex military war hero as a husband.
The science fiction and world building is a fascinating combination of familiar elements and imaginative burr alien science, one that includes intergalactic space currents that ships travel like rivers , space arrays that operate like doorways , and a veritable explosion of complex environments and scientific knowledge that builds, book upon book as the series progresses.
It’s interesting to see how Schwartz balances what’s essentially a galactic monarchy system so familiar with readers, along with its inherently continuous plotting of heirs, powers, and connections with that of a alien science, unknown realms, and potentially a unknown human world they’ve been unable to reconnect with.
The found family of Nora, Jonah, and Liam remain my favorite elements. Jonah being an alien IA.
Each book is around 14 to 15 chapters, so they go quickly. And it’s great to binge read them, one after another.
Which I’ve done.
Fabulous work. Creative, entertaining, and the universe is one that could be easily explored further with secondary characters.
Life is complicated along the Hadrian Line. Decisions made on the border will decide the fate of the entire Human Sector.
Nora is adjusting to her new role as a player in the games of the powerful. She’s gained some interesting enemies and some even more dubious allies. She has also been presented with a unique opportunity, courtesy of Jonah. The question is, who can she trust to explore it with her?
Independent action is a necessity for the sole Royal Capitoline Navy captain patrolling the border region. But Liam will have to defend his actions later in front of the Admiralty board. How can he best serve his realm? By a rigid definition of duty and defense of the status quo, or is there a greater cause, one worth his career and his very life?
This author continues to amaze me with the depth of his writing. It’s a fast paced science fiction/game Lit story, so jam packed with mind boggling elements, new technology gifted or created, and incredible characters who at this point it doesn’t even matter what species they or were after the alterations made to their bodies during the game.
It’s a brutal, messy, murderous and very sad slog from point to point as the players, including now the NPG players, try to keep going, until they get the chance to reach the next stage and level of the game.
Each book is one travel experience to the next level, with enormous losses, some wins with explosive attacks and equally devastating consequences.
The players we know and are familiar with can level up their skills and equipment, get sponsors, and also find a bigger bounty on their heads as they become popular. Carl, Princess Donut, Donut’s pet raptor Mongo, new player Katia have formed a team, albeit temporarily until Katia gets reunited with her old team of women players. One with a leader of many agendas.
This time the focus is on trains and subways. That’s how the players must travel to the next destination, their safe spaces, and the elevators to the next level when the designated time comes.
It’s full of new horrors, so so many body parts, and just when it’s a bit too much, things like this happen.
Carl is speaking to a NPG who just wants to read and has only a few books.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. I pulled five Louis L’Amour books from my inventory. I’d read each of them already, from Sackett’s Land to Lando. I’d actually read almost all of them already, but I didn’t want to give them all up. “I’ll trade you these five for five of your books. Straight-up trade.””
So happens I love these myself. And some of the books Carl chooses? The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. All beloved reads of mine.
The narrative of quietly familiar scenes offset those that can immediately flow from high action intense scenes to the dramatic ones of fear, frustration or rage when Carl has a raw break alone to react with the reality of their situation and the insane amount of loss that they have suffered and will continue to endure going forward.
It hits the reader then equally hard. Keep the tissues nearby.
It’s hard not to care about the players. But this game is one where you find it hard to believe anyone will survive it.
I’m heading quickly to the next level and story.
The cover illustration is incredible. It’s so well done and exact to the characters and storyline. Honestly, you rarely see this fantastic artwork these days.
Cover Illustration by Luciano Fleitas Cover Design by Toby Dinniman
The top ten list is populated. The sponsorship program is open. The difficulty is ramping up. The first three floors were nothing compared to what Carl and Donut now face.
The Iron Tangle. An impossibly-complicated subway system built out of the world’s subterranean railway systems, all combined and then tied together into a knot. Up is down. Down is up. Close is far. The cars are filled with monsters, the railway stations are less than safe, and the exit is always just a few stops away.
But there is hope. For the first time, the crawlers are all working together. The loot is better than ever. And the secret to unraveling it all may be hidden in the pages of a seemingly-useless book. Welcome, crawlers. Welcome to the fourth floor of the dungeon
It’s not a good thing when I think I was being generous with my rating here. My love for The Portlock Paranormal Detective Series by Heather G. Harris and Jilleen Dolbeare prompted me to seek out individual stories by each of these authors as each has a fairly large number of books/series they’ve written.
So far I haven’t found the same level of depth of world building and characterization in the individual books as I found in their co-authored series.
Splintered Magic has the worst female main character yet of the ones I’ve read so far, which is highly disappointing. Especially as everything about her, the circumstances she finds herself in, and the premise of the story are incredibly promising.
It begins so well with the 40ish recently divorced Brigid Donovan pulling up to her family very old crumbling Victorian mansion/house in the middle of the night. Towing all her belongings in a rental trailer, she’s just arrived at the house, where long overdue renovations are underway.
The excellent descriptions of the house, the tall Pacific Northwest woods, and the rutted road leading into the shambles of a house full of memories and a family of construction workers, scrambling to get the work done brings the location and people alive.
And of course, a huge cat shows up, one that is a twin to the cat she grew up with decades ago on the same house. Huh.
Magical stuff starts to happen immediately to Brigid. And if perhaps, Dolbeare had gone a different route with the character, say extremely young and sheltered rather than older, experienced woman, someone who’s undergone a recent bitter divorce with a cheating spouse, and left everything behind, than I might have felt differently about the novel and this character’s reactions to, well, everything.
My biggest issue with the character of Brigid is her lack of believability as a woman. Given her age, experiences and current circumstances, how the author has her reacting in much of the scenes and events here just doesn’t make sense. If she’d come out of a nunnery perhaps, but even a high amount of tweens/grade schoolers have a better sense of caution and self awareness than Dolbeare has equipped her with.
She’s come home to a place she’s not been in for quite some time and not communicated with any of the people from her childhood. But immediately they, especially a girl she remembers as being a bit of a bully and mean girl, is automatically a “bestie “ on face value, because she seems nice.
No one does this. Ever.
Then when everyone, and I mean everybody, from her cat to , yes, another instant old boyfriend she’s decided she’s crazy for , tell her that this person and her entire group are bad bad people, does she listen? No.
Because they seem so nice.
It’s one incredibly stupid character development or decision making element after another. Poor Brigid turned into a TSTL character almost immediately here, making it literally impossible to take her or the entire story seriously.
Which is a shame because the series is complete but I don’t think I can handle any more of this twaddle.
There’s several other magical storylines, all of which are familiar plot lines. A person’s history and powerful abilities are stripped and hidden until they have the strength to handle it. But again, this part is silly as it isn’t well executed and is full of plot holes the more that you think it through.
Anyway. It ends on a cliffhanger that a reader could easily see coming. How involved you are here will determine if you go ahead with the series.
He left her with a broken heart… and a crumbling mansion full of magical secrets.
Brigid Donovan’s life is in shambles. Her husband ran off with his secretary, her ancestral home is falling apart, and all she wants is a quiet life in the heart of Oregon’s wild, ancient forest. But when her cat starts talking—and drops the bombshell that she’s the great-granddaughter of a fae lord—Brigid’s life goes from wrecked to downright weird.
She’s supposed to have magic. Power. A legacy. So where the hell is it?
As strange happenings ripple through the town of Kilchis, Brigid discovers her renovation team is a pack of werewolves, her new best friend is a witch, and her family history is a magical mystery wrapped in secrets. To survive, Brigid must reclaim her magic—before it claims her.
Welcome to Splintered Magic—a paranormal women’s urban fantasy full of wit, wolves, and wicked twists
Publisher: Vinci Books (February 14, 2023)
Publication date: February 14, 2023
Language: English
Print length: 206 pages
Werewolf shifter fantasy thriller, witch and wizard romance thrillers,
Brigid Donovan is divorced, adrift, and might be going nuts. Her desire to restore her family’s decaying Victorian Mansion isn’t going well. Mainly because her werewolf contractor is murdered on the job. And the only other choice to take over is the hot, if sketchy, cousin to the local coven’s head witch.
On top of these problems, her fluffy Ragdoll cat is now speaking to her—that can’t be normal, right? He tells her she’s the great-granddaughter of a fae lord, and very powerful. That’s all fine and dandy, but where is her magic?
Her search leads her to discover that her magic was taken from her at an early age and splintered into thirteen pieces of jewelry that she must find, reintegrate, and learn to use all before the local witch coven finds it first—and they play for keeps.
Luckily, she has a best friend, a Splintercat, a griffin, a teenaged dragon, and an angry werewolf pack to help. Everything should go smoothly…shouldn’t it?
Kennedy is another new to me author on my search for new writers of strong female characters and great stories.
Green Gryphon is the first book in Kennedy’s Mackenzie Green series, a novel set 50 years after magic drastically reappeared in the world, resulting in the death of billions, loss of the then governments of countries and chaos. Cities crumbled, anything created of plastic or non natural materials dissolved, leaving destruction and disaster behind. And magical beings that formed from some of those who were left.
Several aspects of this book surprised me. Not the foundation whereby a reappearance of magic destroys the world’s technology as well as its current countries structures, that’s a well established concept.
What caught me was the main character of MacKenzie Green and her small family. In a world of fantasy characters, dragons, gryphons, vampires, werewolves, and other mythical beings that this magical shift created, the book adds another element with her.
This is actually a darker story than I expected. Far from the sort of light tone that we get from the book’s blurb.
It’s far better than that.
It’s got a tinge of horror, that riding the edge of terrifying science fiction mixed with a fantasy vibe that makes this a fascinating and exciting story.
Plus dragon shifters and found family.
However, I’m thinking this novel should have trigger warnings as there’s plenty of bodies, bloodshed, and in the future stories, torture.
Mackenzie is a plant mage who’s hiding plenty of secrets. Those are slowly revealed towards the end of this book.
The world building is slowly coming together, as the author gives us the new structure as it pertains to this city and how humans and the otherworldly beings are governed. And the newly formed purity rights group that has formed within certain communities.
It’s highly suspenseful, action packed, and full of character driven storytelling.
I’m so invested in this character and series. Also thrilled it’s a complete one so I can binge through.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 